Motorsport Park's 2011 racing season to begin on schedule

The Absolut Cycling Experience will go on as planned Saturday
and Sunday at the New Jersey Motorsports Park.

The Millville facility filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday,
but a news release stated the move was about restructuring debt and
would not affect the 2011 schedule or other on-track
operations.

The Absolut Cycling Experience, an instructional event run by a
motorcycle retail store, will be the park’s first event since the
filing.

“I haven’t seen a hiccup,” said Roy Cadoo, CEO of Absolut Cycle,
which is based in Rahway, Union County, but recently opened a store
in Millville to serve the track’s clients. “This is a common
practice in business that has been done before. I’m not too
concerned.”

Racetracks generally operate on one-year contracts with racing
series, so the long-term effects of the move on major races such as
Grand-Am, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and the
Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) will not be immediately
known. All three of those series are expected to hold races this
year at NJMP’s Thunderbolt Raceway, one of the park’s two road
courses. The park also features Lightning Raceway and a karting
track.

Grand-Am Managing Director of Communications Herb Branham said
he is still optimistic about the future of his series’ races at
NJMP, including the Rolex Sports Car Series, which was the first
spectator event when the $50 million facility opened in July
2008.

“From a purely racing standpoint, apparently the schedule is not
affected, and we’re planning on being there July 22-24,” Branham
said. “That’s an important place to race with the Philadelphia
media that come to that racetrack. It’s a nice, new facility, a
cool place to race. We want to come there.”

ARCA President Ron Drager said Monday evening that he was still
waiting for NJMP General Manager Brad Scott to return his phone
call, but Scott had reassured him in an e-mail that “we were
business as usual going forward.” Like Grand-Am, ARCA has held
races at NJMP in all three of the park’s seasons.

“We have seen motorsports companies do this and come out on the
other side and be OK, and of course we have seen companies that
attempted to make it through and didn’t,” Drager said. “We would be
hopeful that the plan that Lee (Brahin, an NJMP owner) and Brad and
all those folks at New Jersey have put in place is one that’s going
to make sense. We’d like to be part of helping them through
it.”

One organization that appears unlikely to help them through it,
however, is RallyCar. That organization held all four events of its
inaugural U.S. Rallycross Championship at NJMP last year, but it
announced last week that Millville is not one of the six races on
its 2011 schedule.

RallyCar Managing Director J.B. Niday declined to comment on the
bankruptcy filing, but said in a statement last week that “the
attendance and ticket sales were far less than expected.”

“I would very much like to add a seventh event back at NJMP if
both parties’ financial requirements can be met and a satisfactory
date agreed upon,” Niday said in the statement.

Officials at AMA, which has drawn the two biggest crowds in the
park’s history — although attendance figures are not announced —
did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Members of NJMP’s Drivers Club said they were not necessarily
surprised by the bankruptcy filing, but they maintained cautious
optimism.

“This happening gives me maybe a little bit more confidence in
the long-term viability of the whole process,” said David Donohue,
a Grand-Am star who lives in Malvern, Pa., and is a Drivers Club
member. “We know their financial issues, and you never know how
that’s going to pan out in the future, and maybe this is how it’s
going to pan out. The doors are going to remain open, and nobody
new is going to lose their jobs. The track’s not going away. It’s
been built. It doesn’t just disappear. It’s just what happens to
it.”

Drivers Club member Jim Lowe, who lives in Bryn Mawr, Pa., but
works as a neurosurgeon in Linwood, said the park’s financial
issues have not hurt the membership experience.

“From the point of view of the consumer, driver and member, I
hadn’t been aware of anything,” said Lowe, who also is a part-time
Grand-Am driver/owner. “It’s still hard to book a day at that track
for testing. It’s not a track that is closed down and shut down and
nonfunctional.

“When I first saw the e-mail (informing members of the filing),
I took a deep breath about Chapter 11, as anybody would. But from
the conclusion, they’re adamant about (succeeding long term). It
sounds to me like they’re doing a prudent and appropriate
restructuring in order to remain functioning and up and
running.”

Lowe and Donohue each pointed out that running a profitable
racing facility is extremely difficult. Sometimes deep-pocketed
owners keep tracks open in the early years despite a lack of
revenue. Some tracks have not been so lucky, such as Bridgehampton
Race Circuit in Long Island, which held its last race in 1997 after
decades of financial problems.

“Tracks aren’t easy to run,” Donohue said. “There’s been
turnover at even some of the biggest places. Sebring (Fla.),
Mosport (Ontario), Road Atlanta. Some don’t survive, like Ontario
and Bridgehampton. There are tracks that just disappear. Whatever
happened to Vineland?”

Amateur driver Louis Casazza, a retired Vineland schoolteacher,
said Vineland Speedway stopped holding races in 1965 because the
owner of part of its land decided to stop leasing it to the
racetrack.

Casazza said he was “absolutely surprised” to hear about NJMP’s
bankruptcy.

“I’m just amazed,” Casazza said. “I enjoyed the track. I did not
know that they were in major financial trouble.”

The drivers and series executives all said they do not know the
extent of the financial trouble due to the complicated nature of
bankruptcy law.

But one thing appears certain. Motorcycles will be zooming
around the track at the Absolut Cycling Experience this
weekend.

“Either the park gets completely dozed and the gates are locked,
or everybody comes into an agreement, which it looks like it’s a
restructuring,” said Cadoo, the Absolut Cycle CEO. “It’s not an
end. The only thing you can do is stay positive. I don’t think the
park’s in it to go bankrupt and close. They’re trying to find ways
to keep the revenues going.”

2011 park schedule

April 9-10: 24 Hours of “Lemons”

April 30: Devil in the Dark 12 Hour Endurance
race

May 13-15: NJMP Sportbike Championship Cup
Series

May 21-22: ARCA Stock Car Series presented by
RE/MAX; RoadMods Battle of the Dirt Cars